Rias said he was going to look at this, so here's the log from today. It is completely unedited except that I added bold for emphasis.

examine greaves
You carefully examine some exquisite rigid leather greaves...
The greaves were made with a great deal of expertise. The stitching is almost perfect and the leather quality is superb.
You notice Elystole's crafting mark.
It is a medium-sized item, mainly made of leather.
It can be worn on the legs.
It is a protective garment, classified as rigid leather armor, and would afford the following levels of protection:
Rake: Extreme
Slash: Good
Pierce: Decent
Bludgeon: Great
Crush: Decent
Hack: Fair
It appears to be scuffed.
It appears to be of superior quality.
Roundtime: 3 seconds.

EAvd>
put greaves on worktable

You feel fully rested.

You put some exquisite rigid leather greaves on the sturdy worktable that is in the room.

EAvd>
repair greaves
You begin to assess some exquisite rigid leather greaves, noting rips and tears in the leather.

You retrieve a skinning knife from your exquisite leather satchel.
You cut away at a few damaged patches before selecting a needle from the worktable. You then stitch away at some exquisite rigid leather greaves, attempting to patch cuts and holes. Looking over
your exquisite rigid leather greaves, it appears there's still more work to be done.

EAvd>
[ESP-GRAY] * A brief pulse of the color Pale-Gold flickers at the edge of your mind's eye. *
You begin to assess some exquisite rigid leather greaves, noting rips and tears in the leather.

You retrieve a skinning knife from your exquisite leather satchel.
You cut away at a few damaged patches before selecting a needle from the worktable. You then stitch away at some exquisite rigid leather greaves, attempting to patch cuts and holes. Looking over
your exquisite rigid leather greaves, it appears to be fully repaired.

Queuing following command: get greaves
(You may clear your command queue at any time)

EAvd>
You remove some exquisite rigid leather greaves from a sturdy worktable.

examine greaves
You carefully examine some exquisite rigid leather greaves...
The greaves were made with a great deal of expertise. The stitching is almost perfect and the leather quality is superb.
You notice Elystole's crafting mark.
It is a medium-sized item, mainly made of leather.
It can be worn on the legs.
It is a protective garment, classified as rigid leather armor, and would afford the following levels of protection:
Rake: Extreme
Slash: Good
Pierce: Decent
Bludgeon: Great
Crush: Decent
Hack: Fair
It appears to be in good repair.
It appears to be of average quality.
Roundtime: 3 seconds.

This isn't the first time this has happened to me, and I would like to point out that I have a lot of leatherworking skill. I have considerably more success repairing metal armor, which is also more durable, from worse damage levels (sometimes as bad as damaged) with less than half as much forging skill.

You overhear the following rumor:
"I saw one of those Shadgard folk come barging into Grif's and shoot one of the patrons on the spot. Shadgard must be a pretty rough place with such outlaws running rampant."

It happened again. A single repair action brought a piece of superior equipment down to average quality. Also wrecked a pair of gauntlets this same way, but I forgot to examine them before starting to see how bad they were.

EAvd>
examine corselet
You carefully examine a sculpted exquisite black leather corselet...
The corselet was made with a great deal of expertise. The stitching is almost perfect and the leather quality is superb.
You notice Elystole's crafting mark.
It is a medium-sized item, mainly made of leather.
It can be worn in the cuirass inventory slot.
It is a protective garment, classified as leather armor, and would afford the following levels of protection:
Rake: Good
Slash: Terrible
Pierce: Poor
Bludgeon: Poor
Crush: Poor
Hack: Terrible
It appears to be battered.
It appears to be of superior quality.
Roundtime: 3 seconds.

EAvd>
put corselet on worktable
You put a sculpted exquisite black leather corselet on the sturdy worktable that is in the room.

EAvd>
repair corselet
You begin to assess a sculpted exquisite black leather corselet, noting rips and tears in the leather.

You retrieve a skinning knife from your exquisite leather rucksack.
You cut away at a few damaged patches before selecting a needle from the worktable. You then stitch away at a sculpted exquisite black leather corselet, attempting to patch cuts and holes.
Looking over your sculpted exquisite black leather corselet, it appears to be fully repaired.

Queuing following command: get corselet
(You may clear your command queue at any time)

EAvd>
You remove a sculpted exquisite black leather corselet from a sturdy worktable with your right hand.

examine corselet
You carefully examine a sculpted exquisite black leather corselet...
The corselet was made with a great deal of expertise. The stitching is almost perfect and the leather quality is superb.
You notice Elystole's crafting mark.
It is a medium-sized item, mainly made of leather.
It can be worn in the cuirass inventory slot.
It is a protective garment, classified as leather armor, and would afford the following levels of protection:
Rake: Good
Slash: Terrible
Pierce: Poor
Bludgeon: Poor
Crush: Poor
Hack: Terrible
It appears to be in good repair.
It appears to be of average quality.
Roundtime: 3 seconds.

You overhear the following rumor:
"I saw one of those Shadgard folk come barging into Grif's and shoot one of the patrons on the spot. Shadgard must be a pretty rough place with such outlaws running rampant."